Category: Fitness

After running almost exclusively not listening to music for most of my times out I decided to really punish my Google Music subscription and unlimited data plan and get some additional BPM encouragement. After a week or so the wires in my headphones drove me crazy snagging on jackets and getting pulled out so I looked for a bluetooth alternative.

As you’ll know there are thousands to go at from £5 to well over £150 – I needed something special to justify purchase like that – then I found it, bone conducting headphones! These sit over your ear like any other ‘sports’ headphones but instead of going in or on your ear they sit on your cheek bones, and conduct the audio through your bones as if by magic – giving the advantage of leaving your ears clear to hear the thing that is about o run you over.

For £110 the comfort level is great and they look great, the sound is good but could be better given the price point but I suspect this is something to do with the technology. All in all I love them.

EDIT: Now for the unfortunate bit, they’ve gone back to Amazon within three weeks after developing a rattle in the right ear. Its really strange hearing the music come through the bone conduction only to hear what sounds like a screw rattling around inside your actual ear. Amazon as always processed a refund (given they have a two year warranty as well) so I’ll probably order some more.

In line with the fitness kick my old Asics had started to show some significant wear and in fact had a hole worn through in the heel fabric. They had done over 500km according to Strava so were due for retirement.

Given the amount of time I was spending in my trainers and my increasingly old and sore feet I decided to go for an upgrade to these simply stunning Saucony Freedom ISOs in black

They are completely blacked out and look amazing but more importantly they feel like running on clouds. I did a quick 4km in them last night just to see and the difference was incredible. Alright they are a bit pricey but if they hold together they should be well worth the cost. Word of warning though I had to go 0.5 size up from my other Saucony shoes, they fit a bit tight.

So, we’re off again, we’ve had the 2015 fitness reboot that never got started, the V2.0 in 2016 that got a bit started but led to me putting about 10kg on and now we are into 2017 – 3 months in and we’re still going strong and seeing some weight loss!

It started in January with a little attempt to get fitter for the ski trip and carried on afterwards. In the first two months I lost 10gk which got me down to 103kg today, I’m aiming for 90 by the end of the year mainly through calorie control and an awful lot of running.

I’m going for slow paced distance but last night while the kids were training I got a smaller faster run in

OK, so a bit of deja vu – 2015 fitness campaign didnt actually happen so here I am in May of 16 at 108kg, with an aim of getting to 95 kg pretty rapidly. I’ve had over two years off most forms of exercise with the exception of weekly football (which has just got painful), the FitBit is back out and calorie counting is making a come back in terms of the food diary, regular running sessions will complement the weekly five a side.

After having over a year off most forms of exercise and gym going I’m ready to start it all off again. In this time I’ve managed to pile on some more weight and am now well above all normal ranges in most of the measurements, I need to loose about three stone – and I need to do it fairly quickly. To that end all the usual methods are being deployed, the FitBit is back out and Calorie counting is making a come back in terms of the food diary, regular running sessions will complement the weekly five a side and I need to get back to the gym to find some weights!

We bought a NutriNinja at Christmas so some meals are being replaced with Green Smoothies which so far taste a lot better than they look and are actually quite filling. The biggest challenge is going to be avoiding the binge snacking habit I’ve always had but with all the left over crisps and goodies from Christmas floating around are proving equally evil.

Breakfast yesterday was two Nairn Oatcakes, followed by a lovely lunch of avocado and poached egg on whole wheat, and for dinner a green devil

Well, just as I was about to press ‘buy’ on the Fitbit Flex to replace my old Ultra I saw a Tweet fly past from the Verge about Fitbit, deciding just to check it, there it was – just what I needed, a Flex but with a clock and a step counter! Details sketchy for now but it looks like its going to be more like £99 rather than £79 for the Flex but it seems worth it to me. Hopefully it will be on pre order soon!